


Going Home (You Are My Home)

by Kittykat23114



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Acxa's a bitch, Adam is alive, Angst, Back to Earth, Bisexual Lance (Voltron), Broken Bones, Choking, Cuban Lance (Voltron), Earth, Eventual Fluff, Eventual Happy Ending, Eventual Keith/Lance (Voltron), Eventual Romance, Explicit Language, Flashbacks, Fluff, Galaxy Garrison, Galra Keith (Voltron), Gay Keith (Voltron), Heavy Angst, Insecure Lance (Voltron), Keith & Shiro (Voltron) are Adoptive Siblings, Langst, M/M, Major Character Injury, Minor Injuries, Pining Keith (Voltron), Pining Lance (Voltron), Post-Season/Series 06, Pre-Kerberos Mission, Protective Keith (Voltron), Protective Lance (Voltron), Road Trips, Roommates, Sad Lance (Voltron), Shiro (Voltron) Has PTSD - Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, Slow Burn, So is Ezor - Freeform, Torture, across the galaxy, broganes, broken ankle, but not the sexy kind, flexible Lance, i love him to much to kill him sorry folks, letkeithsayfuck2k18, like daMN SON, reopened wounds, season 7 fix it book, sorry this is serious, you fine
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-06-20
Updated: 2019-01-27
Packaged: 2019-05-25 15:21:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 6
Words: 19,049
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14979989
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kittykat23114/pseuds/Kittykat23114
Summary: So now that the Castle was destroyed, we have to go back to Earth. Without worm holes. Road-trip across the galaxy it is. But is everything as blissful as it seems. Or is there something sinister lying in the shadows, waiting to strike.A season 7 and season 8 fix it book.





	1. Aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I decided to combine the parts of the chapters

Lance sat by Red as the others talked with Shiro, making sure he was alright. He sighed as he looked down at his feet, kicking a pebble as Red purred in the back of his mind to comfort him. Lance jumped as the Galran that came with Keith sat down next to him. "Uh, you're Keith's mom, Krolia, right?" Lance chuckled out nervously. She nodded, watching as Keith helped Shiro sit against the Black Lion.

She turned to look at the tan teen, raising an eyebrow. "You're Lance, correct?" He nodded, blinking as Krolia's blank face changed into a soft smile. "He talked about you a lot." Lance's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, shaking his head.

"Why? Did he make fun of me?!" Lance yelled as he glared at the back of Keith's head before sighing, dropping his gaze to his feet.

"It wouldn't be surprising if he did. I would make fun of me too." Krolia frowned slightly, the behavior that he is displaying opposite of what Keith had said about him. Krolia had a hard time believing that the strong and proud Lance her son described is actually very insecure.

"He described you as strong, proud, observing, loud, caring, a bit annoying and emotional. He talked about how you protected the mustache man from an exploding crystal, and how you held out for so long with out immediate medical attention." She laid a hand on his shoulder, getting his attention long enough to look up at her.

"Don't sell yourself short, Lance. Keith spoke highly of you." She smiled softly, glancing at her son. "So don't be so down on yourself about anything." And with that, she got up and walked over to Keith, who waved at Lance.

Lance blushed, waving back. He heard Red chuckle in the back of his mind, sticking his tongue out at the lion. When he turned to look back at the group, he was face to face with Keith's space wolf. He yelped, freezing as it sniffed him. He watched as the wolf got closer to his face, thinking he was going to die by space dog when-

"OH MY GOD, STOP LICKING MY FACE." The dog kept licking Lance's face as he attempted to get away, allowing the dog to climb on top of him. He chuckled as he pet the wolf's head, wiping the spit off of his face. The others had turned to look over at him after the screaming, watching as the wolf curled up on Lance's lap, tail wagging happily as the Cuban petted him. Keith smiled softly before whistling.

"Yorak, leave him alone!" Yorak whined, going to get off the Cuban when Lance shook his head.

"He's fine, Keith! I don't mind one bit." Lance rubbed his head, smiling as Yorak licked his cheek. "Reminds me of my dogs back home." He smiled softly as he remembered his two dogs, chuckling as Yorak licked his face again. He continued to pet the dog as Keith turned back to the others, taking in everyone's tired expressions.

"We can stay here for the night and head out in the morning. Pidge, I need you to contact Matt and tell him what happened. Hunk, if you could make us some food, that would be great. Allura and Coran, you guys should talk more with Romelle." They all nodded, heading off in different directions to do stuff. Krolia walked over to Keith, smiling.

"I'll help Hunk with dinner." She muttered as she followed Hunk to the Yellow Lion. Keith turned back to look at Shiro, only to find him not by Black. He panicked for a bit before finding him walking over to Lance, blinking in surprise.

Shiro sat down next to Lance, leaning against the Red Lion. Lance looked over at him, seeming slightly wary of him as he continued to pet the dog. Shiro looked over at him, sighing softly. "I'm sorry." Lance blinked in surprise, looking at him confused.

"What-why are you sorry?" Lance muttered out, looking down at Yorak. Shiro frowned slightly, digging his finger in the dirt.

"Because I couldn't stop him. He hurt you all, you the most." Lance let out a soft chuckle.

"Yeah, well I'm pretty sure Lotor hurt Allura more-"

"I'm not talking about Lotor."

Lance looked over in surprise, raising an eyebrow. "Then who are you talking about?"

"The Clone. I have all of his memories. It's why I was so tired when I woke up, this body still had the memories of the time it spent with you. I'm sorry that he yelled at you, Lance. You had every right of an opinion in the matter, as did everyone else." Shiro smiled sadly as he patted Lance's shoulder. Lance looked over at him, so confused before he felt a tear run down his cheek. He wiped it away, sniffling.

"Thanks, Shiro. I'm sorry I couldn't figure it out sooner." Lance muttered out, jumping as Shiro ruffled the top of his head.

"Not your fault. The connection wasn't strong enough. No signal." Shiro chuckled out, smiling as Lance let out a laugh. He ruffled his hair again, smile widening. "There's the goofball sharpshooter we all know and love."Lance chuckled, pushing at his shoulder lightly.

"Haven't you heard, my Bayard can turn into a sword now." Lance chuckled out, laughing a bit as Shiro looked down in surprise. Shiro shook his head, smiling.

"Maybe you can ask Keith to train with you? He can give you a few pointers." Lance smiled, nodding as he looked over at Keith, who was walking over to them. Shiro watched as Lance's eyes lit up as Keith came into his vision, smiling as he watch his eyes filled trust, happiness, and.....love? Shiro shrugged, getting up.

"I'm gonna go talk to Pidge, have fun!" He called out as Keith walked up to them, leaving the two bewildered. Keith shrugged as he sat down next to Lance, smiling as Yorak reached over to lick his face.

"Yes, hi, I missed you too, silly." He said to the wolf as he pet him, looking over at Lance. "I missed you too, Lance. I missed all of you. It was weird not hearing Pidge go on and on about new tech right as we got up. Or eating Hunk's cooking during meals. Or Shiro letting us come to him with problems." Lance looked over at Keith, a small smile forming on his face.

"I miss hearing Coran tell stories about when he was younger. Or when Allura would join us for training." Keith sighed before petting Yorak right between his ears. "But I think I missed joking around with you. You always knew what buttons to push to get me to fall into what ever goofy plan you had."

Lance blushed, his smile widening as he watched Keith list off all the things he missed. "I-We missed you too Mullet." Lance chuckled out, ruffling the wolf's fur. Keith smiled, chuckling softly. He watched his dog snuggle up against Lance, silently wishing he was there instead of Yorak. He could have sworn the wolf knew what he wanted because Yorak looked at him with a smug look. Keith glared at the dog, looking at Lance softly a bit after.

"I've never seen him warm up to anyone but me this quickly." Keith muttered out, missing Lance giving him such a soft look. Keith looked up at Lance as he remember the last bit of conversation he caught from Shiro and Lance's talk. "So I heard your bayard can turn into a sword now." Lance nodded, smiling.

"Yeah! According to Allura, it looks like an Altean broadsword. Just like King Alfor's apparently!" Lance talked excitedly about it, before pulling his bayard out. He transformed it into the sword form, smiling as he watched Keith looked at it with surprise and......pride? Keith looked over at him, smiling.

"If ya want, I can teach you some pointers about sword fighting." Lance smirked, nodding.

"Yeah, sounds fun." Lance chuckled out, looking at him with a look of determination and competitiveness. Keith smirked, pulling his blade out.

"Want to get started now then?" Lance nodded, moving Yorak off of him so he can stand up. He smiled at Keith as he took him a bit away from the Red Lion, getting into a defensive stance as Keith activated his blade. Keith pointed his blade at him, smirking. "Let's start with basics." He told Lance, getting into an attack stance as he stood opposite of Lance.

Lance nodded at him, his face going stoic as Keith charged at him.

* * *

 Lance groaned as Keith pinned him to the ground.

Again.

For like the 12th time.

Lance glared at him as Keith stood up, the paler holding his hand out to help Lance up. "Wanna go again?" Keith seemed genuinely happy, although that might have something to do with the fact he's kicking Lance's ass. Lance shook his head, sitting up.

"Can we take a break? You've been kicking my butt ever since we moved on from "The Basics"." Lance said, using air quotes around 'The Basics'. Keith nodded, sitting down as well. He looked at Lance as he flopped backwards, throwing his arms over his head.

"To be honest, you've lasted longer than I thought." Lance glared up at Keith, sticking his tongue out.

" _Woooow_ , thanks for the confidence Keith." Lance said in a monotone voice, his glare turning playful as Keith sat down next to him.

"I meant it as a compliment, Lance. So, I guess Allura wasn't lying when she said you spent more time in the training room." Keith said, barely missing the lonely look that had crossed Lance's face. Keith blinked as Lance went back to smiling, the smile looking a bit strain.

"Yeah, I probably had beaten your amount of time in the training simulator. But we'll never know, since the castle was destroyed." Lance muttered out, siting up as he wrapped his arms around his legs. Keith looked at him confused, his mind focusing on the sad tone the Cuban's voice held.

"Why were you in the training room so much? I mean, I had to fight you tooth and nail to get you in there." Keith asked, his head tilted a bit to the side in curiosity. Lance sighed, picking up a rock and tossing it across the plain.

"Well, everyone had things to do. Allura and Lotor were doing Altean Magic stuff, Hunk, Pidge, and Matt were all doing geeky nerd stuff, Coran was busy with the coalition, and Shiro wasn't acting like himself, obviously." Lance muttered, messing with the armor on his legs.

"I was by myself a lot. I kinda became the loner after you left." Lance muttered softly, wiping at his face as he felt tears well up in his eyes. Keith frowned, his eyebrows furrowing as he became a bit angry with everyone for leaving Lance alone like that.

But he was angry at himself too. He knew Lance was insecure about his place on the team, and he thought leaving would help. It did more harm than good apparently. Keith looked at Lance before placing his hand on his shoulder, gaining Lance's attention.

"I'm sorry I left. I wish I had talked to you more."  _'I thought I was helping you.'_ Keith thought to himself as he squeezed Lance's shoulder. Lance nodded before his face cracked into a smile.

"But you're back, so I guess if everyone goes off into their groups again, you can talk to me." Lance said before he started to wave his arms in front of his face. "Unless you don't want to, I mean you can do what you want..." Lance had started rambling. Keith chuckled, smiling softly.

"I don't mind hanging out with you, Lance. It's fun, your goofy personality helps people relax."  _'Me especially.'_  Keith, once again, kept that thought to himself. Lance nodded, drawing random things in the dirt with his sword.

"If you say so, Mullet." Lance muttered, a frown forming on his face. Keith frowned a bit as he watched Lance curl into himself a bit as he continued to draw in the dirt. Keith looked at the drawing, watching as Lance drew the castle from memory. Keith glanced at Lance from the corner of his eye, frowning a bit more as the emotion of homesickness crossed his face.

"Lance.....you okay, bud?" Keith quietly asked, touching his shoulder lightly. Lance nodded, wiping at his eyes to get rid of the tears forming there. Lance looked away, sighing softly before sticking his sword into the ground.

"I honestly don't know, Keith." Lance muttered, flopping back on the ground to look at the sky. "I guess I'm happy that we're going back to Earth, but it's gonna take a while to get there. We can't exactly wormhole there." 

Keith nodded, frowning a bit. "Yeah, but we get to spend time together as a team, I guess?" Keith then perked up, smiling brightly. "Oh my god, it'll be like a family road trip! I've heard those are really fun!" Lance looked over at Keith as he began to radiate giddiness, smiling fondly as he stared at him.

The light of the planet's suns gave Keith's skin and hair a beautiful glow as they set, his eyes bright as he talked about all the things they could do during their trip back home. He looked away with a light blush when Keith looked over at him, rubbing the back of his head slightly. Keith tilted his head in confusion as he stared a bit at Lance. He was gonna say something when.

"DINNER'S DONE!" Hunk yelled, scaring the two paladins a little. Lance smiled slightly before standing up, holding his hand out for Keith. Keith smiled back, taking it as Lance pulled him up. They walked over to Hunk and Krolia, everyone gathering around to get some food from them. Lance stood back a little farther from the group, allowing the others to get food before him.

He jumped when Keith held a bowl in front of him, blinking slightly as he took it. "Thanks..." Lance muttered as he slowly ate the food, glancing at Keith as he sat down next to him. Keith nodded, smiling slightly.

"Well, I noticed you weren't getting food, so I got you a bowl." Keith told him, eating a spoonful of the goo. He hummed slightly, smile growing. "I've missed Hunk's cooking oh my god." Lance smiled, bumping Keith's shoulder.

"What, did the food with the marmorites taste bad or something?" Lance joked, smiling at the paladin. Keith nodded, quickly eating his food.

"You have no idea." Keith muttered, shoveling the food in his mouth as Lance ate slowly. Keith set his empty bowl down, glancing over at Lance as he ate slowly. Keith bumped him softly, gaining his attention.

"Yeah?" Lance asked, giving him a confused look. Keith went to open his mouth when Shiro sat down on Lance's other side, glancing between them before looking at Lance.

"Lance can I talk to you?" Shiro looked over at Keith, nodding at him. "Alone?" Keith smiled warily before getting up, walking over to Krolia and Yorak. Lance looked at Shiro, smiling.

"What ya need, Shiro?" Shiro frowned slightly.

"Lance did you....die recently?" Lance frowned, poking at his food.

"I.....think so......why?" Shiro raised an eyebrow, prodding at his stump of an arm.

"I.....saw you on the astral plane.....but only for a little bit.....what happened?"

"I.....Allura was gonna get hit by a large beam of energy. I didn't think about the consequences before I pushed her lion out of the way.....Suddenly I felt like I was being electrocuted and the next thing I know.....I'm on the astral plane.....I thought I saw you, but I wasn't too sure about it." Lance muttered, setting his bowl down. "Then Allura brought me back....."

Shiro nodded, looking over as the suns started setting over the horizon. "What.....what were your last thoughts before you died? If you don't mind me asking." Lance followed his gaze, sighing.

"I thought about my familia mostly....how I'll never see my primos, sobrinas, and sobrinos faces again.....about you guys....but mostly....I thought about how I'll regret not telling Keith how I feel about him, ya know?" Lance muttered, glancing over at Keith, who was laughing as Romelle made a face at the goo. Shiro followed his gaze, smiling gently.

"Ya know, when I died, I thought about how I failed to help Keith.....and help save Matt.....but I guess I had nothing to fear, right?" Shiro muttered, smiling as the suns finally set. He stood up, helping Lance up. He walked over to the group, smiling tiredly at them.

"I think now would be a good time to get some sleep?" Everyone nodded, the paladins heading to their respective Lions. Lance sighed as he walked over to his lion alone, jumping as Yorak ran into the lion. Lance sighed, smiling softly as he climbed into the lion. He chuckled as he watched Yorak settle on his makeshift bed.

"You don't want to sleep in Keith's lion?" Lance asked the wolf as he sat down, petting him softly. Lance laid down, smiling softly. He closed his eyes as the dog curled up next to him, snuggling close to him. Lance slowly fell asleep, clinging to the wolf as he did.

* * *

 Lance woke up as light shone through Red's window, groaning as he tried to move.

Emphasis on the word  **tried**.

Yorak was laying on his arm, successfully pinning Lance down. Lance froze as he turned to look at the space wolf, gulping. He squeaked as the wolf rolled over on top of him, almost smothering him.

_'Oh god this is how I die isn't it, smothered by a giant wo-'_

A yell was heard from the Red lion as Yorak simultaneously licked his face and stepped on his crotch.

Keith looked over to the lion as Lance walked out, his wolf following hot on his heels. Lance stomped over to Keith, muttering under his breath. He pointed his finger in the paladin's face, growling. "You're dog is a menace."

Keith looked over at Yorak, watching as he wagged his tail back and forth. Keith smirked, waving him over, petting the dog. "Awww, did you annoy the big, bad Lance?" Keith baby talked him, smirking over at Lance as he was glared at by the Cuban. Lance shook his head, sitting down in front of the fire Keith had started. Lance glanced around their makeshift camp.

"The others' not up yet?"

"If they weren't before, they are now because of your girly scream." Lance glared at him, frowning.

"Ha ha, very funny. I see those two years gave you a sense of humor." Lance said dryly, although there was a hint of amusement hidden in there. Keith chuckled, shaking his head.

"I've always had a sense of humor. You guys just never understood it." Lance rolled his eyes.

"Correction. Shiro and Pidge understood them, only because your jokes were about dying." Lance muttered, pulling on a thread on his shirt. Keith shrugged, patting Yorak's head before he shuffled over to sit next to Lance. He bumped shoulders with him, glancing at the bags under ocean blue eyes.

"Hey....you okay?" Keith quietly asked, laying a hand on his shoulder. Lance looked a bit startled before shrugging, staring at the fire in front of them.

"Nightmares." Lance muttered as he wrapped his arms around his legs, resting his head on his knees. Keith frowned as he pulled the Cuban into a hug, rubbing his back.

"Do you....want to talk about it?" Keith asked hesitantly. Lance looked over at him in surprise, sniffling as he nodded. He leaned against the other, wiping at his cheeks as he felt a few tears fall down them. Keith looked at him startled, rubbing his back to help comfort him. Lance clung to him, not bothering to hold the tears back as he muttered about how he was falling.

"Lance, hey, take a few deep breaths for me, okay?" Lance nodded, taking a few shaky deep breaths as he tried to calm down a bit. He wiped his eyes after his breathing returned to normal, muttering a sorry about getting Keith's shirt wet. Keith shook his head, still gently rubbing his back. "Hey....don't apologize, it's fine...."

"I....I never told you....but during one of Sendak's attack against Lotor, we were helping repair a shield for an outpost. Something happened with Shiro and the shield couldn't charge up. The plate me and Allura fixed was going to shoot at Allura's lion. I pushed her out of the way, taking the hit. I....I died....for a few minutes there, before Allura brought me back." Keith looked at him in shock, pulling Lance closer to him.

"And you had a nightmare about dying?" Lance nodded, sighing as he hugged Keith back. Keith frowned as he rubbed his back, watching as Yorak came over and snuggled against Lance's legs. Lance smiled softly, reaching down to pet him.

"He was very helpful at calming me down last night." Keith blinked, looking at the dog before smiling. He nodded at his wolf, silently telling him 'thank you' with the nod. Yorak winked at him, licking Lance's hand as he continued to pet him.

"Yorak's good at that..." Keith muttered, thinking back to his time on the space whale. Lance looked up at him, pulling away from the hug as a slight blush covered his face. Keith looked over at him as he stood up, walking over to his lion.

"Well, I should go get changed out of these clothes! Gotta go get ready for the day." He said as he walked backwards into the Red lion, sighing as the door closed. He walked over to the box he had packed the clothes he had made when the paladins were creating clothes with the Castle's clothes synthesizer.

He rummaged through the box, picking up the blue turtleneck out of it. He grinned as he looked at the sleeveless turtleneck, setting it aside as he grabbed some jeans and his jacket. He noticed some fingerless gloves in the box, picking them up. He shrugged, picking up the gloves.

Lance quickly got changed, tying up his shoes. He walked out of Red, looking as everyone else was awake now. Lance walked over to Hunk, who was cooking up some breakfast for the group. He watched him make something the resembled scrambled eggs, leaning over his shoulder. "Is that scrambled eggs?" Lance asked, raising an eyebrow.

"Something like that." Hunk muttered as he focused on the food, not really paying attention to Lance. Lance sighed, walking over to sit down in front of the fire. Krolia and Shiro both rose an eyebrow as Lance seemed to start to pout, glancing at each other before Keith went and sat down next to him. Lance looked at him as he elbowed him, smiling.

Keith gave him a once over, blushing as he spotted the fingerless gloves. "Since when did you wear those?" He managed to say without stuttering. Lance rose an eyebrow before looking at his hands.

"Oh these? A while now, whenever I train basically." He muttered, crossing his arms. Keith took notice of the turtleneck, gulping as his gay thoughts began to take over as he turned a bit red. Lance's eyebrows furrowed in concern as Keith choked on his spit, patting his back as he coughed. "Keith, you okay?"

Keith nodded, turning a bit redder as he stared at Lance. "Yeah, I'm fine." Keith said, staring at Lance until Shiro got everyone's attention.

"After we eat, we should leave. The sooner we get to Earth, the better." Everyone nodded, all of them shoveling food into their mouths. Lance ate faster than everyone, causing Keith to question how he wasn't choking. Lance rose an eyebrow at him, fork in his mouth.

"I have a big family. If you don't eat fast enough, you don't eat at all." He said around the fork, swallowing his food as he went back to shoveling it into his mouth. Keith blushed a bit before eating his own food.

Soon enough, everyone was done eating and was packing up to leave. Everyone climbed into their lions, Romelle and Coran riding with Allura as Krolia, Shiro, and Yorak rode with Keith. The Lions took off, flying out of the planet's atmosphere and into space. Everyone pulled up their comms so they could communicate with one another. Lance looked at the Black Lion.

"What's the plan, Chief?" Lance asked, flying next to Keith.

"We're heading to the planet Matt wants to meet at." Keith said, everyone else nodding as they flew off in the direction of the planet.


	2. In the Darkness

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> New chapter name, new episode. The team arrive to the planet their supposed to Matt on. But he won't make it there until the next day. Something lingers in the forest and darkness, so can the team survive the night on the planet?

Keith sighed, having the team land on the planet they were supposed to meet Matt on, Tenebris. It was close to sundown when they hit planet-side, the Lions landing around each other. They all walked out of their lions, Lance glancing around the area nervously.

"Is anyone else getting a bad feeling? Like their being watched?" He asked nervously, keeping his eyes on the forest nearby. Pidge rolled her eyes, shaking her head.

"You're just imagining things, Lance." She muttered, Hunk nodding in agreement with Pidge. Lance frowned before nodding, sighing.

"I....yeah, I guess." His eyes lingered on the forest, oblivious to the concern looks he was getting from Keith. Keith looked around the area, glaring at the forest.

"I....also have a bad feeling about this place. Something's off." Keith muttered as his eyes narrowed more as he stared at the forest, barely noticing Krolia nodding in agreement with him.

"My instincts are going haywire." She muttered, her hand twitching slightly as she kept it near her pistol. Keith frowned, standing closer to Lance, who finally looked over at him.

"No one goes off on their own. If you go anywhere, you take someone else with you. Buddy system." Keith told the team, looking at the forest out of the corner of his eye. They all nodded, Pidge and Hunk grinning as they zoomed to each other's sides.

"We should call out buddies. Hunk and I are buddies." Pidge smiled, fist bumping with Hunk, who was nodding and grinning.

"Team Punk at it again!" He shouted, putting Pidge on his shoulders. Keith noticed Lance deflate a bit as his best friends kind off excluded him, the smile on his face becoming more and more strained.

"So Allura do you-"

"Romelle and I are partners now. It'll be fun, we'll talk more about the Colony." Allura said, grinning over at Romelle, who smiled back shyly. Lance sighed, crossing his arms as Coran, Krolia, and Shiro partnered up together. Keith rose an eyebrow as Shiro smirked at him and gestured to Lance with his head.

"Lance, we can be buddies if you want?" Keith asked him, smiling at him as he laid his hand on Lance's shoulder. Lance looked at him, smiling slightly.

"Alright.....okay." He muttered, watching Hunk and Pidge as they ran around. Lance sighed, catching onto their science filled conversation and some of the chanting of 'Team Punk'. Keith frowned as he looked at Lance, who was becoming slightly less cheery as he watched the duo.

"Hey, you okay?" Keith asked him, watching as Lance shrugged.

"I just......Whenever Hunk, Pidge, and I hang out, it's always Team Punk plus third-wheel Lance." He muttered out to him, pouting slightly. "I mean, we're supposed to be the Garrison trio, not Team Punk with Lance." He muttered.

Keith frowned before slinging his arm around Lance's shoulders. "Well, what if we created a name like Team Punk?" Lance looked at him, smiling slightly.

"Really?" Keith nodded, smiling at him as Lance bounced on the balls of his feet. "Alright, cool. We need a name. Ooh, what about Team Klance?"

Keith shook his head, chuckling. "Lance, that is literally just a K in front of your own name." Lance squawked at him, faking offence.

"I thought it was brilliant. What do you think it should be?" Lance muttered, raising his eyebrow as Keith thought it over.

"Well, how about Team Laith?" Keith asked, smiling as Lance nodded his head. Lance smacked his back, smiling brightly.

"Sounds great!" Lance yelled before Pidge got everyone's attention.

"We're gonna go look for wood, we'll be back." Pidge explained as Hunk followed her towards the forest, Keith frowning.

"Take your bayards with you. Don't know what lurks in there." Keith said as Pidge groaned, the duo grabbing their bayards from their lions. Pidge stuck her tongue out at Keith as she passed, leading Hunk into the forest. Keith shook his head before turning to Lance.

"Wanna just talk and hangout?" Lance nodded, sitting down in front of the Red Lion. Keith sat down next to him, picking at the underside of his nail with his Marmora blade.

Lance watched him curiously, causing Keith to lose focus on what he was doing. As he lost focus on his hand, cutting the underside of his finger. Keith hissed in pain, bringing his thumb up to his mouth. Lance winced as he climbed into Red to get the first aid kit. He grabbed Keith's hand, pulling his thumb away from the Half-Galran's mouth. Keith turned a bit red as Lance looked at his finger, the Cuban pulling disinfectant out of the first aid kit.

"Lance, I can take care of it my-SON OF A QUIZNACK!" Keith shouted as Lance rubbed the disinfectant on the cut, trying to pull his hand away from Lance. Lance frowned, tightening his grip on Keith. He wrapped Keith's thumb up, his eyebrows furrowing as he concentrated on taking care of his thumb. Keith was a bright red, watching as Lance nodded.

"There, all better." Lance said as he stared at Keith, smiling softly. Keith smiled back, opening his mouth to say something when-

"AAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" Came from the forest, causing everyone to worry.

"That was Hunk's scream! We have to go help them!" Lance shouted as he sprang up onto his feet, running into the forest with his bayard activated into it's sword form.

"Lance, wait!" Keith shouted, following after the other male into the dark forest. Everyone else followed after them, all of them bringing their weapons as they ran into the dangerous forest.

* * *

  **A FEW MINUTES BEFORE....**

Pidge picked up some sticks, examining them to see which ones were good for setting on fire. Hunk kept looking around them, starting to feel uneasy as he felt like they were being watched. "Okay...now I see what Lance was talking about....I feel like we're being watched."

Pidge nodded, looking around the area when a bush moved from the corner of her eye. They both froze, getting their bayards ready as they watched the bush continue to move. Hunk aimed his cannon at the bush, ready to shoot whatever popped out of it. They froze as a bunny like creature came out of the shrubbery.

Hunk let out a sigh of relief, deactivating his bayard. "False alarm, just a bunny." Hunk said before he heard a buzzing, turning around as multiple eyes watched them. Suddenly there was a thousand alien bats flying around them, heading straight for the two.

"AAHHHHHHHHHH!"

* * *

 Lance ran through the forest, heading straight for the sounds of his two friends screaming. His bayard was activated into the gun mode, stopping as he saw the swarm that circling and attacking the duo. He sneered before shooting at a few of the creatures, immediately gaining their attention. The alien bats let out hisses at him, words coming from them.

Allura and Coran froze as they saw the creatures, Allura immediately transforming her bayard into her whip. " Those are Mørke Flagermus! They like to hunt down anything with Altean blood!" Coran shouted, hiding behind Shiro and Krolia. Lance growled again, shooting one of them down.

"Then why are they going after Hunk and Pidge!?" Lance shouted, growling. Allura paled slightly, whipping at a few of the bats.

"They've been watching us, knew we would come running if they attacked them." Allura muttered, trying to keep the creatures away from her and Romelle. Lance frowned, shooting at the ones heading for Coran and Romelle. The bats turned to look at him, hissing as they observed him. Their eyes seemed to glow from dark orange to bright blue, scanning the Paladin.

 _"Altean...."_ The bats all hissed out, heading straight to Lance to attack him. No one had time to think about what they hissed out, the only people who caught it was Keith and Krolia. Keith growled as he swiped at bats with his sword as they tried to get close to Lance. Lance shot at the bats as the tried to dive down at him, yelping as one got came from behind to cut his arm.

Keith stepped closer to him, protecting him from behind. "Is there a way to get them to leave us alone?" Keith shouted over at Coran, swinging as more tried to get to Lance from behind. Coran nodded, still hiding behind Shiro.

"If we can divert their attention away from us!" Keith nodded, turning his gaze to Pidge.

"Do you have anything?" He yelled to her, slashing one of the creatures right in half as it went straight for Lance's head. Lance had an idea before Pidge could answer.

"What if we activate a light cube? Are they attracted to light?" Coran nodded, smiling as Pidge tossed one of the boxes to Lance. Lance turned it on before throwing it into the forest, the creatures following it. Lance sighed in relief before tugging on Pidge and Hunk

"Let's get the quiznacking out of here." Lance said, running back to the Lions. Everyone entered the first Lion they could get to. Lance pulled up the Red Lion's comms, the others following suit in the others.

"Alright, Keith and I are in Red with Yorak. Where is everyone else?" Lance asked into the com.

"Allura and I are in Blue." Romelle replied.

"Hunk and Pidge are in Green." Pidge told him, checking on Hunk immediately after.

"Coran, Krolia and I are in Black. Is everyone okay?" Shiro asked, his voice laced with concern. They all have their own confirms of 'all good.'

Well, that is until Lance promptly passed out.

* * *

 Darkness...

Why was everything so dark.....

Where was he?

_"Lance!"_

Someone was calling for him....

Who was calling for him?

_"Lance, wake up!"_

**Keith.**

Keith was calling for him....

But why?

Did something happen?

_"Lance, you need to wake up!"_

But it was so calm in the dark....

He didn't want to leave....

_**"LANCE WAKE UP!"** _

Lance's eyes slowly opened, his vision blurry as he looked around. First thing he saw was purple. Pretty, purple amethyst eyes.

**Keith's eyes.**

Lance looked at Keith confusedly, his head pounding as he tried to sit up. He blinked in confusion, staring at the ceiling of the lion. Keith helped him sit up, having him lean against the back of the seat. Lance looked at him with his eyebrows furrowed, rubbing his head. "What happened?"

Keith moved some of his bangs away from his forehead, frowning. "You collapsed. Why didn't you fucking say you got cut bad by those creatures?" Keith asked, sounding angry. Lance winced, looking away from his violet eyes, which were filled with worry and anger.

"I didn't want you guys to worry..." Lance muttered, watching as Keith got up and grabbed the first aid kit out of a compartment.

"It worries us even more when you suddenly collapse, idiot!" Keith shouted out, walking back over to Lance. He sat down across from the Cuban, glaring at him slightly. "Alright, armor off."

Lance blushed lightly, taking his chest plate and arm guards off as Keith took out some supplies from the kit. Lance winced as he stretched too far over, looking down at his left side. He visibly winced, the wound stretching from just below his pecks and ended at the mid abdomen. It wasn't too deep, but he had lost enough blood to pass out from the wound. Lance looked at Keith as he got closer, blinking when he tugged on the sleeve of the undersuit. "Off."

Lance nodded, pulling the top half of his undersuit off. He hissed in pain, going to hold his side. Keith grabbed his wrist, stopping him from grabbing his side as his glare softened.

"Let me clean and wrap it first." Keith said softly, letting go of Lance's wrist. Lance nodded, laying his hand on his lap as Keith grabbed the disinfectant out of the kit. Lance hissed out as the cotton pad touched the wound, grinding his teeth together as Keith squeezed his hand. "Sorry..." Keith muttered as he rubbed the cotton pad on the wound more.

Lance squeezed his hand in response, closing his eyes until he heard Keith grabbing something else from the kit. He opened his eyes as he saw Keith grab a surgical needle and dissolving thread. Lance gulped, quickly closing his eyes again as Keith disinfect the needle and pierced the skin. The ravenette began to sow the wound close, tying and cutting the thread. 

Keith grabbed the gauze, wrapping it around Lance's torso. "Alright, done. We'll have to change the wrappings in a few hours though." Keith said quietly, handing Lance a shirt as he shivered. Lance nodded, pulling the shirt on slowly as Keith put the first aid kit away. Lance looked at him sadly, wrapping his arms around his legs.

"....'m sorry...." Lance muttered out, gaining Keith's attention. Keith looked at him softly, sitting down next to him and pulling him into a hug.

"Don't apologize.....I should have noticed...." Keith muttered into his shoulder, rubbing Lance's back gently. Lance hugged him back, squeezing him slightly before closing his eyes. Keith noticed he was about to fall asleep, smiling softly. "Go ahead and take a nap Lance."

Lance nodded, resting against Keith as he slowly fell asleep.

* * *

 Lance groaned as he slowly woke up, glancing around the cockpit. He was laying down on his makeshift bed, his eyebrows drawn together in confusion. He didn't know where Keith had gone to.  _'Oh god what if we got attacked while I was sleeping and I'm the only one le-'_

"OW FUCK!"

_'Never mind.'_

Lance slowly got up, noticing his wraps had gotten changed while he was sleeping. Lance walked out of the cockpit, heading towards the sounds of clinging in the cargo hold of the Red Lion. When he opened the door, Lance had to cover his mouth to stifle his laughter. Keith was moving the boxes around in the back area, trying to organize the area. Keith must of dropped something on his foot, he was holding it as he was leaning on a box.

Lance walked over to the noirette, chuckling quietly. "You okay?" Keith looked up at Lance, glaring at him playfully.

"What the fuck do you have in these boxes?" Keith hissed out, still holding and rubbing his foot. Lance smirked, chuckling louder.

"Knick knacks from different planets and the gifts we got from the different aliens we've freed." Lance said, his smirk widening. "You would know if you weren't so emo." Lance teased, yelping as Keith pinched his arm. Keith smirked at him, chuckling.

"Whatever you giant flirt. They probably gave you gifts to shut up." Lance squawked at him before playfully smacking his arm.

"You asshole." Lance said playfully, grinning. God he missed being able to tease Keith like this.

_'Don't you mean flirting~'_

'Shut up inner thoughts.'

_'You can't hide from your gay thoughts forever~'_

 'I SAID SHUT UP!'

"Lance?" Lance whipped his head up at Keith, taking in his worried expression. "You okay?" He sounded really worried, his eyebrows furrowed slightly.

"Huh? Oh yeah I'm fine, Keith. Just slightly tired." Keith's expression softened as Lance yawned, smiling softly.

"Let's go to bed, yeah? Everyone is already in bed." Keith said, tugging his arm in the direction of the makeshift bed in the cockpit. Lance nodded, following him as Keith opened the door. Keith let Lance go through first, the Cuban laying down on the mattress. Lance looked at Keith in confusion as he sat down by the wall.

Lance rolled his eyes as Keith tried to fall asleep against the wall, lifting the covers up. "Get over here, Mullet." Keith's face turned slightly red, but crawled over to lay down next to Lance. Lance smiled before covering them, closing his eyes as he fell asleep. As he drifted off to dreamland, his mind was full of black mullets and sparkling, amethyst eyes.


	3. Whispering Storm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Episode 3: After Matt arrives to the planet, the team hightails it out of there. They were setting off towards another planet on route towards earth, they get trapped in a space storm. The storm is full of whispers, trying to tear the team apart and make them turn on each other. Can their trust in each other keep the team together? Or will the whispers tear them apart for good?

Keith nuzzled towards the warmth as he woke up, yawning. His eyebrows furrowed as he felt his pillow, which was very solid. Keith felt around on his pillow, which was moving.

Wait...

Keith's eyes snapped open, coming face to face with Lance's chest.

His.

Bare.

Chest.

Keith turned bright red, trying to move away from Lance. But Lance's arms were wrapped around him, holding him closer everytime he tried to move away from the Cuban. Keith gulped as he stopped struggling, staring up at Lance's face. Keith's blush got darker as he looked at how peaceful Lance was when he was sleeping. Keith studied his face, how Lance's eyelashes laid on his cheeks softly.

How the furrow between his eyebrows seemed to disappear, how there was a layer of freckles across Lance's cheeks and nose. They weren't noticeable unless you were really close to his face. Keith glanced down at Lance's shoulders, noticing the faint freckles there as well. 'Must have faded from being in space too long.' Keith thought, looking back at Lance's face.

Keith looked at Lance's lips, which were a shade pinker than his skin. 'God, they look so kissable-Wait what?' Keith's eyebrows furrowed together, his mind growing extremely confused as he questioned why he thought that. It wasn't a matter of if he was gay or not, he already knows that he is. But it was a matter of if he liked Lance or.....

'Oh my god, I'm in love with Lance.....oh god I fell in love with a straight boy.' Keith's thoughts were in so much turmoil, he didn't notice when Lance's eyes fluttered open. Actually, he didn't know he was awake until Lance coughed sightly. Keith looked up at him.

Sky blue met deep purple. They both looked away from each other, turning red as Lance let go of Keith. Keith moved away slightly, scratching the back of his neck. They both sat up, Keith's gaze falling to Lance's wrapped side. Keith frowned, his blush disappearing as he noticed the gauze was stained red.

"We need to change the wraps." Keith said, standing up to grab the first aid kit from a compartment in the cockpit. Lance blinked at him owlishly, watching as Keith walked back over. He sat down in front of the Cuban, crossed legged as he slowly unwrapped Lance's wraps. Lance looked down at the wound, wincing at it as Keith ran a rag over it gently. The half-galran had put disinfectant on the rag, attempting to clean the stitched wound. He pulled the rag away from the skin, relaxing a bit as he realized it had stopped bleeding.

Lance watched as Keith grabbed the gauze out of the kit and held his arms up slightly as Keith wrapped it around his midsection. Lance dropped his arms after Keith was down, watching his put the supplies back into the first aid kit. "So....any estimate on when it should be healed?" Lance asked, watching as Keith set the kit to the side.

"Maybe a week or two. I'm not sure." Keith muttered, tossing Lance a shirt. "Put a shirt on, don't need you ruining the wraps." Keith said, stretching his arms above his head. They both winced as they heard Keith's shoulder let out a popping sound, the older rubbing his shoulder.

"You okay?" Lance asked softly, looking at him concerned. Keith nodded, sighing softly.

"Yeah....it's the shoulder I injured during the Trails of Marmora, so it tends to ache from time to time." Keith muttered, smiling at Lance softly. Lance nodded, smiling at him in understanding.

"Understandable. My back aches from the explosion back at the castle." Lance said, smiling sadly as he thought about the altean structure. Keith looked at his hand, frowning a bit. It really didn't hit them that the castle was gone until now, causing the air around them to turn somber.

That is until Hunk came onto the comms. "Hey, it's day out and we can leave the lions now?"

"Yeah, we should be safe now." Keith responded, standing up with Lance doing the same a few moments later. Hunk nodded from his head, smiling.

"Cool cause I made breakfast." Hunk said before turning the comms off. Keith and Lance looked at each other, smirking at each other deviously.

The two paladins sprinted towards the exit, racing each other to see who could get to the others first.

* * *

 "You cheated Mullet. Just admit it." Lance muttered, shoveling a spoonful of goo into his mouth

"For the last time, Lance. I didn't cheat, you're just slow." Keith huffed out, glaring at his bowl as he angrily ate his goo.

The two paladins have been arguing about this ever since Keith beat Lance to breakfast. Lance thinks Keith cheat, while Keith knows he didn't. 

Lance totally didn't lose cause he was staring at Keith's ass.

Totally.....Okay so he was staring at his ass but that's besides the point.

Lance glared at Keith as they both ate their food in angered silence. The rest of the group were sitting far from the pair, afraid they'll start a fight. Lance's glare softened when he noticed how upset Keith was about the fight.

"I'm sorry for accusing you of cheating at the race." Lance muttered, frowning at his bowl. Keith glanced over at Lance, sighing.

"Me too. I'm sorry for getting angry at you." Keith mumbled, setting his bowl down and looking over at Lance. Lance smiled softly, patting Keith's back.

"Great. Now let's not fight again, yeah?" Keith nodded in agreement. The rest of the group let out a sigh of relief, glad the two paladins weren't fighting anymore. Lance bumped shoulders with the other paladin, smiling.

"Thanks for treating my wounds, Mullet." Keith flushed red, smiling at him.

"O-Oh no problem." Keith stuttered out, looking at Lance shoulders.

**Fuck.**

_'Were they always that broad?'_

Lance didn't seem to notice Keith blushing or how the half-Galran was staring at his shoulders.

Everyone turned to look at the ship landing near the lions, Matt stepping out of it. He waved as the ship took off, turning to the group.

He was immediately tackled by Pidge, who was filling him in on what had happened while he has been gone, from working with Lotor to the bats that attack Alteans. Matt looked relatively surprised by the information, and overwhelmed by it as well. He walked over to the group while giving his sister a piggy back ride.

He looked at Lance when he saw the bandages. "What the hell happened to you?"

Lance chuckled nervously. "Well, I may or may not have gotten wounded by those bats." Matt rose an eyebrow but nodded anyways, sitting down next to Shiro. 

"When we leaving?" Matt asked the group, everyone shrugging but Keith.

"I figured when everyone was done eating." Matt nodded, laying back on the ground.

"Alright, well, I'm in no hurry."

"I am, I do not want to stay around for those bats to show up again." Romelle muttered, shivering. Matt looked at her before pulling a flirty grin, sitting up.

"Well, well. No one told me we had another pretty girl on the team. When did you get here beautiful?" Everyone deadpanned, most of them expecting Lance to flirt with Romelle first, not Matt.

"Oh I'm Romelle!" Romelle was completely oblivious of the flirting. Matt pouted, his attention turned to Krolia.

"Yo who's the Galra?"

"My mother." Keith deadpanned, getting him to shut his mouth immediately from any flirting attempts. Keith kept glaring at the Holt, the older shrinking under it.

"Is everyone done now? I think we should get going. I'm gonna ride with Pidge!" Matt said quickly, jogging over to the Green Lion. Everyone else chuckled, Hunk collect the bowls and cleaning everything up as the others walked to their lions with their passengers. Shiro then decided he would ride in Lance's lion.

"I think I'll ride in Red." Keith gave him a worried look.

"Are you sure?" Shiro nodded, following Lance into the Red Lion. Lance rose an eyebrow when he noticed that Shiro sat behind him.

"Uh..."

"I figured we could just hang out. We never really did back at the castle." Lance nodded, watching Black take off before following it. 

"Alright, well, enjoy the ride then." Lance muttered, smirking as he blasted past Black, earning some yelling from Keith over the comms. "Oh hush Mullet, and have some fun." Lance chuckled out, earning a small laugh from Shiro.

"Whatever Lance, just follow me. We're gonna head to Earth, but we'll have to stop at a planet to let the Lions recharge in about a few days." Lance nodded, following the Black lion as they flew on the path to Earth.

* * *

 Lance thrummed his fingers against the control panel, sighing. He was bored, like extremely bored. Lance started humming a bit, forgetting the comms were on and that Shiro was currently sitting in his lion.

"Lance, are you.... humming the beginning of Despacito? " Pidge asked, chuckling a bit. Lance made a bit of a surprised squeak noise, immediately stopping in his humming.

"No.... No I was not. " Lance stammered out, causing the others so chuckle. Pidge rolled her eyes, smiling widely.

"If you say so, Lance." Lance glared at her little icon showing her comms, frowning.

"Well sorrrrrry if this is the most boring road trip ever...." Lance muttered out, pouting a bit. Shiro chuckled from behind him, holding his hand up in mock surrender when Lance glared at him. Keith let out a small snort from his lion, shaking his head.

"Then what do you suggest we do? Play some type of game? " Keith asked, raising his eyebrow a bit. Lance's eyes sparkled a bit as he smirked.

"Yes! We can play the Alphabet Game! " Lance said excitedly, grinning ear to ear. Allura and Keith both made confused noises, Allura because she doesn't know the Earth alphabet very well, Keith because he's never played it before.

"What's this 'Alphabet Game'?" Allura asked slowly, confused on the fundamentals of this game. Lance clapped his hands, startling everyone.

"Everyone has to name one thing starting with each letter of the alphabet. We move on after everyone either passes or gives an answer. I have a scoreboard programmed into Red so she can keep score. " Lance said excitedly, grinning as he pressed a few buttons to pull up the board. " We can do it in teams! "

"Alright, well. I'm in. " Keith said, everyone else nodding and making noises of confirmation. Lance grinned, nodding.

"Cool, who's going first?" Lance asked, smiling widely.

"Well, it was your idea. How about you start? " Keith said, smiling softly, unbeknownst to the others. Lance hummed at the thought, nodding.

"Alright. So I'll start. Okay, A is for..... Airplane. " Lance said, earning a point. Pidge cleared her throat, indicating that she was next.

"Amphetamine." Pidge said, high-fiving Matt as they got a point. Allura thought for a bit on her word, smiling softly.

"Alfor." Allura said a bit softly, smiling more as she gained a point.

"Aubergine!" Hunk said excitedly, causing the others to shake their heads as he gained a point. Keith thought a bit for his word, clearing his voice a bit.

"Arus." Keith stated a bit quietly, smirking when he gained a point. Everyone chuckled a bit, Pidge grinning evilly.

"Of course you would choose the first planet we landed on." Pidge chuckled out, shaking her head. Keith smiled sheepishly, rubbing the back of his head.

"It was the only thing I could think of...." Keith muttered out. Lance chuckled as he shook his head.

"Dude, that's the point of the game. Anyways, B...... Beaches. " Lance said, causing Pidge to let out a mildly confused noise.

"I honestly thought you were going to say boobs." Pidge said, causing Lance to deadpan.

"Wow, thanks for the confidence, Pidge." Lance said sarcastically, Pidge wincing a bit as she muttered out a sorry.

"Okay, well....my word is bio-hazard." Pidge said, sighing a bit.

"Um.... blanket. " Allura said, a bit unsure before sighing as she got a point.

"Banana." Hunk said with complete seriousness. Everyone let out a few chuckles as Keith thought of his word.

"Blue Lion." Keith said, smiling a bit as the others shaking their heads. Lance let out a snort before thinking of his word.

"Cuba."

"Cybernetics." Pidge high-fived Matt.

"Cube."

"Cabbage."

"Cacti." Keith said, having a bit of fun with this game. Lance had been trying to think of a word before he did, groaning a bit.

"Shiro, please don't be upset with me but my word is.... dildo. " Lance muttered out, causing everyone to start laughing. Well, everyone but the Alteans and Krolia, who were very confused on what a dildo was. Lance chuckled a bit nervously as Shiro attempted to calm down from his laughing fit.

"Oh man, that was amazing. But honestly, I would have said the same thing. " Shiro said, chuckling a bit. Lance sighed a bit in relief as he relaxed, glad he didn't cause someone he looked up to to be disappointed in him.

"Okay,okay. That was amazing. But my word is deoxyribonucleic acid." Pidge said, grinning.

"Hmm...dog." Allura muttered, smiling slightly.

"Doughnut." Hunk hummed out, getting a few questioning looks from the others.

"Dude are you hungry or something?" Matt suggested, raising an eyebrow.

"Yes." Hunk said in a very serious tone, his face looking very neutral. This got a few laughs out of the others while Keith thought of his own word.

"Okay, uh, dagger." Keith said, causing Lance to let out a tiny chuckle.

"I was waiting for you to say something about knifes." Lance chuckled out. "But my word for e is Elephant."

"Eagle."

"Ear."

"Egg."

"Earth." Keith said a bit somberly, causing everyone to go a bit quiet. Lance shook his head, smiling a bit as he thought of a word.

"Fire." This caused everyone to snap out of their somber moods, Pidge smirking a bit.

"Freezer."

"Um...Face."

"Fig."

"Feline."

Lance hummed a bit as he thought of his next word, tapping his fingers against the controls of Red again.

"Gear-stick."

"Ghost."

"Gas.

"Ginger."

"Galaxy Garrison." Keith said, sighing a bit. Lance chuckled a bit, rolling his eyes.

"House."

"Horse."

"Headband."

"Ham."

"Hamilton." Keith said with absolute seriousness, causing Lance to chuckle.

"Dude, are you a musical fan?"

"Yes." Lance blinked a bit in surprise.

"Wait, really? Cause I am too!" Lance said, about to say something else but his words got cut off short when he noticed something weird about the area they're about to fly through. "Uh, guys...what's that?" Lance said, frowning a bit.

"It looks like some type of storm...." Shiro said, causing everyone to frown a bit. Keith started shifting Black away from crackling dark swirls, attempting to go around it.

"Let's go around it." Keith said, his eyebrows furrowing close together when the storm seemed to move towards them. Apparently, he wasn't the only one seeing it.

"Uh, is the storm moving closer or is it just me?" Hunk said, sounding a bit nervous. Keith's frown deepened as he stopped Black, everyone following his lead.

"We'll just have to go through it. But don't get hit by the lightning, it might cause the lions to short-circuit." Everyone nodded as Black started flying through the storm, following behind them slowly. Lance looked around a bit nervously before noticing the dark swirls curling away and then towards the lions. His eyes widened a bit as they twirled around them.

"Uh, guys...." Lance said, glancing behind him when he smelt a horrible smell. His eyes widened more as the dark clouds filled the cockpit, causing Shiro and Lance to start coughing. The others started yelling through the comms, asking if they were okay before they started to cough themselves. Lance felt his eyes close a bit.

"Lance....Lance!" He heard Keith yell before slipping unconscious. 

* * *

 Lance groaned a bit as he opened his eyes, rubbing his temple to try to get rid of his headache. He looked around his cockpit, noticing that Shiro was waking up as well. "You okay?" Lance asked, still rubbing his temples. Shiro nodded, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"Minus the killer headache, yeah...You?"

"Same. My head's killing me." Lance muttered, turning the comms on. He heard the groans of his fellow teammates as they woke up, frowning a bit. He felt unexplainably angry with them, but he didn't know why.

"Is everyone okay?" Keith asked, his voice slightly groggy. The others let out sounds of affirmation, while Lance tried to understand why he felt so angry. Keith started feeling worried when he heard no word from the Red Lion. "Lance?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. Not that any of you guys care." Lance snapped out, causing the others to look confused and a bit worried.

"What are you talking about?" Keith asked, sounding concerned.

"Oh don't act like you care. You haven't been around!" Lance said, snapping at him again. Keith frowned, growling a bit.

"I'm sorry that I wanted to learn more about my galran side, Lance." Keith said, trying to keep calm.

"No, what you did was run away. You ran away Keith, maybe you should have stayed away!" Lance snapped at Keith.

"Don't you know you're half the reason I left? Or are you just that dense?" Keith snapped back, frowning. Everyone else looked bit more confused as Lance's eyes widened a bit.

"What are you-" Allura started, her eyebrows furrowing.

"Yeah, sorry man, I'm not following. I'm like ninety percent sure you left to go hang out with the Blade." Hunk said, interrupting Allura before she finished.

"Kill two birds with one stone. I got to learn more about my heritage and we solve the 'one paladin too many' problem. Isn't that right, Lance?" Keith said as Lance felt himself tear up a bit. The others soon started to understand why Lance started pulling away from the team.

"You thought....think we don't need you. That's why you've been distant, isn't it Lance?" Hunk asked hesitantly, his eyebrows furrowing in concern. Lance didn't say anything, only confirming to them that was why he had been pulling away from them. Lance glared at the comms monitor, rubbing a bit at his eyes.

"Nothing to say 'loverboy'? Did you even notice that I was looking out for you?! Did you even  _care?!_ " Keith snapped out, clutching the controls to Black tightly in anger. Lance kept silent, wrapping his arms around himself as he felt a few tears slip from his eyes. Shiro frowned, wondering what had happened while he was gone, how he couldn't have noticed a giant rift between some of the paladins.

Keith took a few deep breaths, growling a bit. "Whatever, doesn't matter now." Keith muttered, glaring at the space ahead.

Lance narrowed his eyes, glaring at the comm screen.  _'Whatever? What the fuck does he mean that it doesn't matter?'_ Lance thought, growling. "What the fuck does that mean, Keith?" Lance asked, his voice turning icy. Keith glared at the comm screen.

"It doesn't matter. You don't care, obviously." Keith growled out, which made Lance want to argue more. He was about to say something when Shiro laid a hand on his shoulder.

"Enough you two. This isn't how you solve some issues, alright? Now, I understand you're both angry, but why?" Shiro said, getting both boys to pause. Keith scratched the back of his neck while Lance wrapped his arms around his legs.

"I don't know." They both said simultaneously, Keith sighing as Lance hugged himself more.

"You two need to apologize to each other." Shiro sighed out, patting Lance shoulder. Lance sighed, nodding.

"I'm....I'm sorry, Keith. For snapping at you like that." Lance said, hugging his knees tighter. Keith sighed, looking at his feet.

"I'm sorry too, Lance..." Keith said, bringing his knees up to his chest. As soon as they apologized to each other, the black smoke that was swirling around their lions dissipated. Keith and Lance looked around extremely confused, blinking as the anger they were feeling disappeared along with the smoke. The other paladins let out the breath they were holding as the tension left the cockpits of the two lions.

"We good now?" Shiro asked, sitting back down behind Lance's chair. Lance and Keith both make noises of agreement, muttering sorry to the other paladins. Hunk and Pidge smiled a bit.

"It's fine you two. It was probably a good idea to get this off of your chests." Pidge said, Hunk nodding in agreement.

"Yeah! Now you guys won't snap at each other later about it." Hunk said brightly, causing Lance to smile. Keith saw the little smile from his comms, blushing slightly as a smile tugged at his lips. _'He's so beautiful-woah, calm down there gay thoughts.'_  Keith thought, scolding his thoughts as Black started to tease him slightly.

Lance froze slightly, his eyebrows furrowing. "Uh, did anyone hear that?" Lance asked, frowning. Everyone rose an eyebrow, most of them looking concerned and confused.

"Hear what Lance?" Hunk asked, his voice filled with concern. Lance frowned, his eyes narrowing at the space in front of him.

"The galran ship in front of us." Lance said, his hands tightening on the controls a bit as he posed his lion to get ready to fire at the battleship. The others turned to look at it, getting their lions ready to fight.

But they were stopped when a beam from out of no where hit them, Lance front and center of it. The others yelled out to him as his vision slowly faded into black from pain, vaguely aware of the others yelling in pain as they were hit before he passed out.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so some of the dialogue from Lance and Keith's fight is from comet-kind on tumblr. I'm gonna link the post of the inspired dialogue here: https://comet-kind.tumblr.com/post/177427988000/i-really-wanted-the-space-episode-to-explore-more
> 
> yeah so that was that. I also have a scene in mind based on another one of their post so yeah.


	4. Fragile Hearts

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Episode 4: The paladins are being held captive and kept separated into pairs, not allowing the others to see each other out of the paladin kept with them. The ones holding them there decide to mess with the team's trust in each other, their worst fears played with. After Keith starts breaking down, Lance tries to find a way to free the team from the ship and their wardens.

Lance groaned softly as he felt an ache all over his body, but he mostly felt cold. Lance slowly opened his eyes, glancing around the cell he was in. He felt the cuffs keeping his arms bound together dig a bit into the bottom of his spine. His eyes adjusted a bit to the dim lights of the cell, his eyes widening as he noticed Keith laying by the wall next to him.

He noticed that his eyes were still closed, meaning Keith was still passed out from the laser beam that hit their lions. Lance looked around more of the cell, noticing that he and Keith were the only ones in this cell. _'Meirda. That means they must have separated us from each other, probably in pairs.'_

Lance's gaze snapped back to Keith when he groaned a bit, watching violet eyes meet his own. Keith glanced around, inhaling sharply as he noticed they were the only two in the cell. "Lance, where are the others?"

"I don't know, I think they separated us from each other into pairs." Lance said, making sure to check over Keith. He noticed that his ankle was bent a little weirdly.

"Keith."

"Yeah?"

"What happened to your ankle?" Lance asked, shuffling over to him. Keith sat up slowly, wincing as he moved his ankle slightly.

"I think it's sprained. I was barely conscious when they threw me in here, might have landed on my ankle wrong." Lance frowned, shuffling over to sitting next to him, wincing when the cuffs dug into his back a bit.

"Fucking cuffs." Lance muttered, frowning. "Couldn't even put my arms in front of me, my arms are gonna go numb at this point." Lance muttered, noticing that Keith's arms were in front of him.

"What?" Keith asked when he noticed he was staring.

"Why the hell did they put your arms in front of you?" Keith frowned, looking down at his arms. Lance rolled his eyes before sliding down onto the floor, laying on his back as he lifted his legs a bit as he looped his arms around and over them. Lance thanked whatever high beings out there that he was extremely flexible or else he would have been able to do that.

Keith stared at him, his eyes extremely wide as he watched Lance sit back up. "How...How did you do that?!" Keith shouted, his eyes crossing when Lance put his hand over his mouth to shut him up.

"Quiet, idiot. Also, it's called years of aerial silks and gymnastics." Lance whispered, sighing as he removed his hand from over Keith's mouth. Keith glared at him before raising an eyebrow.

"You did gymnastics? And aerial silks?" Keith said, curiosity dripping in his voice. Lance nodded, snorting.

"Yeah. My older sister, Veronica, and my twin sister, Rachel, wanted to do gymnastics when we were younger. I was always dragged into doing things like that with them, but they usually got bored of it. I stuck with it until we moved from Cuba to Arizona to take care of mi Tía Maria." Lance whispered, wrapping his arms around his knees as he rested his chin on the tops of his knees. Keith frowned, laying a hand on his shoulder.

"You'll see them again, Lance. I promise." Keith said before their cell door opened, both of them freezing as they heard footsteps walking into the cell.

"Well, well, well....look who's finally awake." Ezor said, crossing her arms as Zethrid stood next to her. The larger general was grinning wildly, maliciously even. Lance glared at him, his body moving to block Keith unintentionally. Ezor and Zethrid just grinned at each other before walking closer to them.

"Let's get started." Ezor said, causing Lance to glare and growl at her. Ezor made a little tutting noise, wagging her finger in front of Lance's face. "Now, now. Don't make this harder on yourselves than it should be."

Lance glared at her harder as she turned to talk to Zethrid. "Well?" She asked, raising an eyebrow. Zethrid nodded at her, grinning.

"Let's see how much the star-crossed lovers are willing to do for each other." Zethrid said, smirking as Ezor nodded, walking back over to Lance. Lance growled at her again before she wrapped her hand around his throat, lifting him off the ground.

"Up we go!" Ezor said as she tightened her hand a bit, causing Lance to let out gasps as he tried to breathe.

"Don't you touch him!" Keith yelled, watching in horror, as he tried to stand up when Zethrid pushed him back down by his shoulder, keeping him down. Lance looked at him, worry for him evident on his face.

"Let him go!" Keith shouted. He knows he sounded desperate, but they were hurting Lance, and he couldn't stand to watch it happen.

"Please, let him go!" Keith watched as Ezor squeezed Lance's throat a few times, his eyes widening. Ezor decided that they were getting boring to play with, so she let go of Lance's throat, watching him drop onto the ground unceremoniously.

Keith immediately crawled over to him, hearing him cough and suck in air quickly. "Lance, are you oka-"

"I'm fine." Lance said, his voice sounding really rough as he glared at Ezor and Zethrid's backs. Keith looked at him, worry seeping into his features. Ezor glanced back at them, waving her hand.

"Night night, lovebirds." Ezor said as the cell door slammed shut behind them.

* * *

Keith watched Lance sleep next to him, his eyebrows furrowed in concern. He stiffened a bit as Lance's head leaned on his shoulder, before relaxing. He kept his eyes on the cell door, his eyes narrowing as he promised to himself that he wouldn't let them get close to Lance again. Keith couldn't afford to lose him, wouldn't let it happen.

Keith tensed a bit as the door opened, growling when Acxa got closer to them. Acxa seemed to notice the protective way Keith had covered Lance from her, the Blue paladin waking after hearing Keith growl. Lance glared at her like he was daring her to move towards them. They hadn't seen her come in while the other two was there, but she knew what they were planning to do to the two paladins.

But Acxa wasn't going to hurt them physically, no no. She was planning to hit them in the mental and emotional department, which was something she was good at, much to the surprise of others. Acxa smirked, squatting down in front of the paladins.

"Stand down, Parvus Unus." Acxa growled out, watching Keith's stance falter slightly before he growled louder. He stood between her and Lance, unwavering as Acxa glared at him.

"Tu custodire nimis debilis est ad eum." Acxa said in Galran, knowing the other halfling understood enough to understand her. Keith glared at her, growling louder.

"Go to hell." Keith growled out in retaliation, shifting when Acxa attempted to move around him to get to Lance.

"Do you really think he'll accept you? One of us? A galra?" Acxa said coldly, smirking when Keith's face flashed with some worry and doubt before it went back to sneering at her.

"You don't know him or me. At all." Keith growled out. Acxa smirked as she grabbed his wrist, tugging him away from Lance, practically tossing him.

"I know enough. You fear abandonment, especially by those close to you. You fear being alone. And once we're done with your team and him, you will truly be alone." Acxa said calmly as she applied pressure to his twisted ankle, grinning as he screamed in pain. She noticed Lance stand up and charge at her, turning to grab his arm. She tossed him away from Keith and her, grinning when she applied more pressure to the Red paladin's ankle.

"Come any closer, and I snap his ankle like a twig." Acxa said, watching with satisfaction as Lance's eyes widened, the fear in them for his teammate. She smirked before applying more pressure to Keith's ankle, listening to him scream in pain as she heard the sickening snap of Keith's ankle breaking. "Oops."

"Stop it! Leave him alone!" Lance screamed at her, looking over at Keith's face. Lance watched as tears fell from amethyst eyes, wanting nothing more than to protect Keith from the galran. Acxa smirked before removing her foot, walking over to the door as Lance rushed over to check Keith's ankle.

"This is only the beginning, Paladins." Acxa said before she left, the door slamming down behind her as the cell closed. Lance wiped Keith's cheeks, trying to look at him.

"Lance, Lance it hurts so much..." Keith whimpered, looking up at him as the tears continued to flow from his eyes. Lance looked at him worriedly, looking at his ankle and wincing as he noticed the wrong angle it was in.

"Keith, I need to set your ankle." Keith's eyes flashed with panic, shaking his head.

"NO! No, no, no, no Lance, please. It'll hurt, please don't." Lance shook his head, frowning.

"Keith, I have to or else it won't heal correctly." Lance said sadly, squeezing his shoulder before gently grabbing Keith's ankle. Keith whimpered, bringing his hands up to his mouth. He bit on his hand, closing his eyes. Lance took a deep breath before pushing Keith's ankle back into place, closing his eyes and whimpering as Keith let out a bloodcurdling scream that dissolved into sobs.

Lance pulled him into a hug, rubbing his back. "I'm sorry, Keith. I had too." Lance told him as Keith sobbed into his shoulder. Lance rubbed his back as Keith slowly fell asleep from pain and the exhaustion. Lance leaned up against the wall with him next to him, using himself as a shield for Keith.  _'They're not hurting him again, I'll make sure of it.'_  Lance thought, glaring at the door as he sat between it and Keith.  _'If they wanted him, they would have to go through me.'_

* * *

Keith was startled awake by Lance yelling, his eyes snapping opened as he watched Ezor punch him in the gut before kicking him into the way. Keith went to stand and help him, but collapsed, grabbing his ankle. Lance looked over at him, shaking his head with wide eyes.

"Keith, just stay there!" Lance yelled at him before wheezing when Ezor kicked him again, not attempting to defend himself at all. Keith couldn't watch as Lance kept taking the hits and kicks, whimpering when he noticed him grabbing his side where his wound is. Keith heard Lance cry out in pain when Ezor kicked him hard there, Keith's eyes flashing before he jumped up.

Ignoring the pain shooting up his leg, Keith crouched in front of Lance when Ezor was about to kick him again. Keith took the hit, growling at her when he felt his skin tingle a bit. Ezor rose an eyebrow before smirking, watching Keith's eyes change while his claws and fangs grew. She noticed the ears poking on the top of his head but just kept grinning.

"Well, well. This is certainly an interesting development." Ezor said before kicking Keith in the gut, watching him stay in front of Lance to protect the other. "Now he definitely will want you gone, halfling." Ezor said as she walked out of the room, leaving Keith confused before he realized he had gone Galran while attempting to protect Lance.

"Keith?" Lance timidly asked, causing the other boy to jump away from him, staring at him in fear. His eyes were still the same violet color, but the whites had turned yellow like a Galra's. Lance went to crawl over to him, but Keith shuffled farther away.

"D-Don't come near me!" Keith yelled, curling in on himself. Lance frowned, moving closer to Keith before he pulled him into a hug, rubbing his back as Keith sobbed into his shoulder.

"Hey, you're fine. It's alright, nothing's gonna happen to you. I'll make sure nothing happens to you." Lance whispered to him, rubbing gentle circles into his back as Keith calmed down enough to turn back into his human form. Lance smiled softly, ruffling his hair. "See, you're alright."

Keith nodded before looking at his side. "It reopened." Keith stated, frowning as he tried to pulled Lance's armor off. Lance stopped him, sighing.

"Keith, we don't have anything to close it wi-" Lance was cut off my Keith glaring at him.

"I'm not gonna let you bleed out, asshole!" Keith yelled as he unclasped both of the sides of the chest-plate, pulling in over Lance's head before unzipping the black undersuit. Keith winced when he noticed all the stitches had came undone, opening one of the pockets of his suit to pull out his mini emergency kit. He frowned a bit as he pulled out a needle and thread.

"I can't clean it, but I can close it." Keith said as he began to stitch Lance back up. Lance whimpered and whined, sighing when Keith stopped. Lance watched Keith as he put the supplies away before pulling him into a hug.

"We need to get out of here." Lance muttered, frowning. Keith nodded, squeezing him gently as he hugged back. He pulled away from the hug, helping Lance pull the undersuit and chest-plate back up.

"Yeah, but how?" Keith asked, looking at Lance. Lance's eyebrows furrowed as he thought, looking around the room. He smirked when he saw a vent in a corner, a plan forming in his head.

"If we can get these cuffs off, we can try going through the vent." Keith nodded, his eyebrows furrowing in determination.

"Let's do it." Keith said, smirking.

* * *

Lance rubbed his thumb, sighing as Keith dropped both of their cuffs. "I can't believe you dislocated our thumbs to get us out of those." Keith shrugged.

"Better than trying to pick the lock of alien tech." Lance nodded, sighing.

"True..." Lance muttered, looking up at the vent in the corner of the cell. He hummed in thought before turning to Keith. "Climb onto my shoulders."

"What?" Keith looked at him, puzzled.

"I said climb on m-"

"I heard you. I just want to know why?" Keith asked, raising an eyebrow. Lance rolled his eyes, crossing his arms as he walked over to the vent.

"So you can get into the vent and pull me up, duh." Lance said like it as the simplest thing ever. Which it really was actually, now that Keith thought about it. Keith walked over to Lance, climbing onto his shoulders as Lance kneeled down. Lance stood up, trying to get Keith as close to the vent as possible.

Keith moved the vent cover off a few minutes later, climbing into it. He held his hand out, pulling Lance into the vent with him. They sat there for a second, looking around the slightly darkened vent. Lance looked ahead of them, down the only way the vent lead. "Alright, let's go find the others...." Lance said, crawling foreword.

Keith followed him, both of them crawling as quietly as possible. Lance was starting to get frustrated as they had been crawling for a while. He was about to say something to Keith when the vent started to groan under their weight, causing them to fall through it.

Keith and Lance screamed, Keith landing on top of Lance as they groaned in pain. "Owwwww....." Lance groaned, opening his eyes and coming face to face with Keith. They both turned red, staring at each other until someone else in the room coughed. They looked away from each other, Lance's head flopping back onto the ground as he looked behind them.

The other paladins were in the room, most of them raising an eyebrow. Shiro coughed again, smirking at the two younger paladins. Keith and Lance bolted away from each other, groaning as they both hit their heads against a wall.

Lance looked over at the other paladins, raising an eyebrow. "Wait....they didn't handcuff you?" He asked, standing up. Allura rose an eyebrow, shaking her head.

"They haven't even been here to come and see us." She said, her eyebrows furrowing in confusion. Lance stood up quickly, looking at them with surprise written on his face.

"WHAT?! You mean to tell me that while Keith and I have been getting the shit beaten out of us, you guys have been just sitting here?!" Lance shouted, puffing his cheeks out.

Keith stood up, biting his lip as he tried to stay off his broken ankle. "Lance, calm down. They didn't know what was happening." Keith said, leaning against the wall with a wince. Lance walked over to him, helping him stand as they leaned against the wall.

"I know. We need to find a way out of here." Lance muttered, looking around room for any escape routes. He snapped his fingers, making a little 'ah-ha' noise. "Keith and I can climb through the vents, land just outside the door, and he can open it with his galra genes."

Keith blinked, looking at him. "That's....actually a pretty good idea." Keith said, climbing onto Lance's shoulders when he squatted down. Lance grabbed Keith's hand as he was pulled into the vent, the duo crawling forward a bit. Lance jumped down first, helping Keith so he wouldn't land on his injured foot. Keith, with Lance's help, limped over to the cell key pad. He placed his hand on it, the pair watching the door move up and the rest of the team walk out.

"Okay, let's find our lions now." Keith said, looking at Pidge. "Any ideas?"

"How about getting back in your cells?"

Lance turned around, looking at Ezor with wide eyes. Behind her were Zethrid and Axca, both of them with their weapons out incase the paladins were to try something. Lance growled at them, placing himself in front of the team. "You guys go find the lions, I'll handle them." He said, summoning his bayard with his suit. He looked back at them when he didn't hear them moving.

"I said GO!" He yelled as his bayard transformed into the sniper-rifle, taking a shot at Zethrid. The other paladins started to run towards the hangar, but Keith didn't move. He couldn't move, he wasn't leaving Lance behind. He limped over to stand next to Lance, summoning his own bayard.

"I told you to go, Keith!" Lance yelled at him as he continued to shoot at the three generals. Keith shook his head, turning his bayard into the sword form.

"Like hell I'm leaving my right hand behind. I did that once and I regretted it. I'm not making the same mistake." He said to him as he charged at Axca, growling as she blocked it with her gun. Lance frowned before taking a shot at Zethrid again, pulling his shield to block a kick Ezor was about to send into his side. Lance continued to try and shoot Zethrid down while also blocking Ezor from landing a hit on him.

Lance had gotten so distracted from blocking Ezor that he didn't notice Zethrid flanking his other side until it was too late. Lance let out a cry as he was thrown to the side, gaining the attention of Keith. Keith watched with wide eyes as Zethrid kicked Lance's bayard away, just as Ezor kicked Lance's stomach.

Keith growled as he kicked Axca before running over to pull Ezor and Zethrid away from Lance, but he was thrown off by Zethrid. He looked up as they continued to beat the shit out of Lance, reaching for his bayard. He looked up as he heard Lance continue to whimper, transforming his bayard. He didn't notice the change of weapon but did notice that it was heavier.

"LEAVE HIM ALONE!" Keith shouted as he pulled his bayard up, looking a bit startled at the gun shape it had taken before shooting at the generals. Ezor and Axca moved out of the way of the bullets while Zethrid blocked them. Keith continued to shoot at them as he stood up, charging as his bayard changed to the sword to slice at Zethrid as he stood in front of Lance as he changed it back to the gun to continue shooting at them.

Lance looked up at Keith, startled as he saw the yellow where his eye whites were normally as well as fangs.  _'Wow that's hot.'_  Lance thought as Keith bent down to wrap an arm around Lance's waist. "We have to go, now!" Keith yelled as he grabbed Lance's bayard and handed it to him, Lance immediately changing it to the rifle form again as he helped Keith shoot at the generals.

They ran down the halls, following the connections to their lions to where they were laying. As they got closer to the hangar, they saw Shiro by the hangar door. They both ran past him, ignoring the shock on his face as he noticed the gun form Keith's bayard was in. "Wha....Is that a gun Keith?" Shiro asked, following them.

"Yep, and we need to go, now! Help Lance get to Red!" Keith yelled at him, passing Lance off to Shiro as he ran over to Black. One by one, the lions started leaving the hangar. Everyone looked over at the Red Lion as they heard Lance's ragged breathing as they flew away from the ship quickly. Lance could practically feel their worried glances, sighing tiredly.

"I'm fine, guys. Let's just get away from here." Lance muttered out as he flew away from the ship the fastest, ignoring the others concerns. Keith sighed, following Lance's lion as they gained more and more distance from the warship.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So there's gonna be more torture.
> 
> I used Latin for the Galran since they sound familiar.  
> Parvus Unus-Small One  
> Tu custodire nimis debilis est ad eum.-You are too weak to protect him.
> 
> Also I made the 'let's choke Lance instead of Pidge' scene was based on Comet-Kind's edit of this scene. Here's the link to the post: https://comet-kind.tumblr.com/post/178260648450/wasnt-it-cool-that-the-generals-used-their-past
> 
> Anyways, prepare for angst.


	5. The Feud

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Filler episodes will only be 1 chapter long (Unless there plot i want to add as a bonus). But basically I gather inspirations from the game show episode but other couple game shows.

Lance groaned as he woke up to bright lights. "What the f---" Lance said, waving his arms around when his curse word was bleeped out.

"Ah, ah, ah. Can't have you cursing in front of the children, Lance." This was said by a little green and blue alien floated in front of him. Lance looked at the alien in confusion, following his movements as he floated around in front of him and - oh look the other paladins. He noticed that they were paired off and put in booths, Keith sitting next to him. Lance looked around the set, his eyebrows furrowing as it looked a bit familiar to him.

The alien floated in front of Hunk and Pidge, gesturing to them. "Hey, everybody! We're back with three new pairs!" The alien said to the fake audience, grinning at the camera. "Our first pair is the Yellow and Green paladins, Hunk Garrett and Katie Holt!" He said to the camera, Hunk waving as he chuckled nervously while Pidge just looked around confused.

The little alien floated over to Allura and Shiro, gesturing to them. "Our next pair is the Princess of Altea and the Black Paladin, Princess Allura and Takashi Shirogane!" He said to the camera, while Shiro waved a bit nervously as Allura smiled nervously. Soon the alien was back in front of him and Keith, gesturing to them.

"And last, but certainly not least, is the Red and Blue paladins, Lance McClain and Keith Kogane." Lance waved at the camera nervously, glancing at Keith out of the corner of his eye. Keith was glaring at the camera, his arms crossed. Lance shook his head, still looking around the studio as he tried to figure out why it looks familiar. The alien twirled out to in front of the fake audience stand, smirking to the camera.

"And I am your host, Bob!" The alien, Bob said. "And if you're new, this game show is where we ask questions to pairs to see if they know each other as well as they thought they did!" He said, grinning.

Something in Lance's brain clicked, turning red with a blush as he realized what everything reminds him of. He groaned as he slammed his head down on the desk, frowning. "Oh my god." Lance groaned out, lifting his head up.

The others looked at him curiously, Shiro raising an eyebrow. "Uh, Lance? You good?"

"This game show is based off of The Newly-Wed game!" Lance shouted, still a bright red and completely missing the fact that Keith was slowly turning red as well. Shiro groaned, pinching the bridge of his nose.

"I thought I was done with this after Adam made me play it...." Shiro muttered, sighing. Lance took a few deep breaths, glaring at Bob as his blush died down.

"Why are we here, and how do we leave?" Lance asked, frowning. Bob grinned at him, snapping his fingers.

"Consider this as a 'get to know you' and you all can leave if one of the teams can answer all the questions truthfully and correctly." Bob said before floating to in front of Shiro and Allura. "Our first question goes to Team Alluiro. Allura, what is your partner's favorite color?" He said, grinning.

Allura thought for a few moments before smiling. "Black, because that was his original hair color." She said confidently.

"That's correct! Now Takashi, can you answer the same question?" Bob asked, grinning still. Lance was starting to find that grin creepy...

"Allura's favorite color is Pink, because it reminds her of her mother." Takashi said, smiling at Allura. Allura smiled back, high-fiving him as they have two points now. Bob floated over to Hunk and Pidge.

"Alright! Team Punk! Katie, what does your partner do when they're stressed?" He asked, raising an eyebrow comically. Pidge grinned, leaning on her elbow.

"Hunk likes to cook and bake when he's stressed." Pidge said, looking at Bob smugly.

"That's correct! Hunk, can you ask the same question?" Bob asked, turning to look at Hunk. Hunk thought for a bit before smirking.

"Katie likes to tinker and upgrade the lions when she's stressed out." Hunk said, grinning as they also gained two points as well. Bob floated to in front of Lance and Keith, grinning at them.

"Team Laith! You're turn! Lance, is there any special memory about your spouse-" Bob was interrupted by Lance and Keith

"Whoa whoa! Keith and I are-" "Lance and I are -"

"Not dating!" Lance and Keith both shouted, Lance a bright red and Keith an even brighter red as they spoke over each other. Bob rolled his eyes, shaking his head.

"Alright, fine. Lance, is there any special memory about your partner that you will never forget?" Bob asked, looking at Lance as the blush died down only for it to come back.

"A special memory about Keith?" Lance asked, glancing over at Keith before sighing. "I guess when he cradled me in his arms." Lance muttered, blushing a bit as he glanced away from Keith.

"I thought you said you didn't remember?" Keith said, starting to turn red, looking away from Lance as the other paladins looked at them with deadpanned looks.

"I was too embarrassed about it at the time..." Lance confessed, blushing more as Bob looked between them before he coughing.

"Keith, could you answer the same question?" Bob asked, watching as Keith started to slide a bit in his seat. Keith glanced at Lance before speaking, taking a deep breath.

"I would have to say, it was when Lance came to talk to me about his worries after we found the clone." Keith said, smiling at Lance. Lance looked at him, blushing a bit as he smiled. Bob looked between them before giving them a thumbs up, the duo getting two points. Lance high-fived Keith, smiling as Bob floated back over to Shiro and Allura.

"Alright, next question! Allura, what animal would your partner choose to be?" Bob asked, grinning. Allura hummed a bit in thought, smiling.

"I believe he said his favorite animal was a dog. So I would assume he would want to be a dog." Allura said, smiling. Bob nodded, turning to Shiro.

"Takashi, can you answer the question?" Bob asked him, smiling. Shiro smirked, nodding.

"A lioness. Because they remind her of the lions her father built and because a lioness is considered stronger than the lion." Shiro said, smirking. Allura smiled, fist bumping him after they gained two points. Bob floated over to Pidge and Hunk, grinning at them.

"Alright, next question! Katie, Did Hunk have any pets growing up?" He asked, smiling. Pidge nodded, smirking.

"Yep, he had two hamsters called Honey and Sugar." Pidge said, high-fiving Hunk. Bob nodding, turning to Hunk.

"Hunk, can you answer the same question?" Bob asked, smiling at him.

"Yep, she has a dog named Bae Bae back on Earth." Hunk said, grinning as they gained two more points. Bob came back over to Lance and Keith, grinning at them.

"Lance, what was your first impression of your partner?" Bob asked him, grinning and watching as he turned a bit red.

"Well, when I met him at the Garrison I thought he was a stuck up asshole. But after he punched James, he started to seem a bit attractive but the mullet ruined it. Also the fact that I thought he was a girl." Lance said, chuckling a bit. Keith's head wiping over to face him.

"wAIT THAT WAS YOU?!" Keith shouted, his eyes widening. Lance looked over at him, raising an eyebrow.

"Yeah.....why?" Lance asked, his eyebrows furrowing. Keith started waving his arms around

"BECAUSE YOU WERE SO SMALL AND JUST HOW?!" Keith shouted, clearly having some sort of gay panic. Keith then threw his hands into the air, sighing. "Talk about one hell of a glow up...." He muttered, his eyebrows furrowing. Lance blushed a bit, smiling softly.

"You had one too...." Lance muttered, causing Keith to blush as well. Bob rolled his eyes, turning to Keith.

"Keith, your answer to the question?" Bob asked, grinning at him. Keith blushed a bit more, smiling softly.

"Well....Before I remembered Lance from the garrison, I only remembered about our meeting while saving Shiro. I thought he was annoying and loud, a little bit of a show off too. But he's not any of those things at all. He's so much more than an annoying show off. And my impression of him from the garrison....he was so shy and quiet, not confident like he is now. And....I thought his name was Taylor." Keith said, looking at Lance softly as he blushed.

Lance smiled softly, blushing as well while they gained two points. Bob rolled his eyes as he floated back over to Allura and Shiro, grinning.

"Allura, If someone told you that someone you were in a relationship with was an ex-convict, how would you react?" Bob asked, grinning. Allura blinked before staring at Bob.

"Yeet them across the room." Allura said, deadpanning. Everyone turned to here, all of them raising an eyebrow. Except for Pidge, who was laughing at the fact that Allura said yeet. Lance looked around curiously as 'In the arms of the angel' meme started playing while Shiro started turning black and white. Bob looked at him before snapping his fingers in front of his face, the music turning off and his colors going back to normal.

"Okay, Takashi. What would you do if you found out someone you were in a relationship with was an ex-convict?" Bob asked him, watching Shiro's expression turns a bit flat.

"Well maybe I'll tell him not to expect me to be here when he gets back." Shiro said sarcastically, causing Lance and Keith to groan.

"Shiro you need to let it go!" Keith yelled over at him, crossing his arms. It didn't matter, because Allura and Shiro have gained two points. Bob floated over to Pidge and Hunk, waiting for Pidge to calm down before turning to her.

"Alright, Katie. What cartoon character does Hunk remind you of?" Bob asked, grinning at her. Pidge adjusted her glasses, smiling.

"Hunk really reminds me of Yuri Katsuki from Yuri on Ice." Pidge said, smiling. Lance let out a snort, smirking.

"Weeb." Lance muttered, causing Pidge to roll her eyes. 

"You're the one who recommended Yuri on Ice to me, Lance." Pidge shot back, smirking as he turned a bit red from embarrassment. Keith looked over at Lance, smiling.

"You watched Yuri on Ice?" Keith asked, his smile widening as Lance nodded. "Cool, so did I!" Keith said, smiling softly. Lance smiled back, high-fiving him. Bob cleared his throat, gaining everyone's attention as he turned to Hunk.

"Hunk, can you answer the same question?" Bob asked, grinning.

"Yep. Pidge reminds me a lot of Velma from Scooby-Doo." He said, high-fiving her as they got two more points. Bob floated over to Lance and Keith, grinning.

"Alright, last question! Lance, what is one thing you have never told your partner?" Bob asked, grinning at him. Lance blushed a bit, rubbing the back of his head.

"Uh, well....After Keith got kicked out of the Garrison, James started saying some shit about him and well uh.....I got into a fight with him defending Keith." Lance admitted, smiling softly as he blushed. Keith looked at him with shock, his eyes widening.

"Whoa, wait-you got into a fight to defend me?" Keith said, disbelieving what he had just heard. Lance nodded, rubbing the back of his neck nervously.

"Yeah. I mean, you weren't there to defend yourself, so someone had to." Lance explained, smiling at him. Bob sighed, turning to Keith.

"Keith, can you give us your answer to the question?" Bob asked him, watching him slowly cringe.

"Uh, well....I may have....almost sacrifice myself twice...." Keith said softly, wincing as most of the team yelled "what?!" at him.

"What do you mean you have almost sacrificed yourself twice!?" Lance shouted, turning to him as he ignored the noise of them gaining two points. Keith frowned, crossing his arms.

"You don't need to know details." Keith muttered, trying to close himself off.

"What do you mean I don't need to know details. I think you need to give us de-" Lance was cut off by the closing title music started playing. Bob floated in front of the camera.

"And that's a wrap folks, say goodbye to our players and see you all next time!" Bob said, winking as everything faded to black.


	6. Lessons Learned

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Episode 6: Lance and Keith are forced to work together after getting into a fight about the game show. Lance starts to look back on his memories of Keith from the Garrison while they're stuck on the planet they were sent to.

Lance let out a grumble as he gripped onto Red's controls, ignoring the mulleted man behind him. _'Why did Keith have to come with me.'_ Lance thought to himself, huffing when Keith leaned over the seat.

“Do you know where you’re going?” Keith muttered, frowning. Lance mocked him by mouthing the words.

“Yes, Keith. I know exactly where I’m going.” He muttered, sounding a bit snarky. Keith frowned more, scowling.

“Seriously! That’s why you’re acting all moody?” Keith said, grossing his arms. Lance turned to look at him, growling more.

“Yes it is! You almost fucking died and never told us you fucking asshole!” Lance yelled at him, glaring at him. Keith glared back at him.

“Oh I’m the asshole?! There was nothing else we could have done! You all would have died if I didn’t do something! One life is insignificant compared to millions!” Lance scowled when Keith started yelling.

“LIKE FUCKING HELL IT IS! DO YOU KNOW HOW BROKEN OUR TEAM WOULD HAVE BEEN IF YOU DIED?! ESPECIALLY LIKE THAT?!” Lance yelled at him, neither of them noticing that Red was entering the atmosphere way too fast until it was too late. Red lights started to blink in the cockpit.

That’s when they noticed they were about to crash into a ravine on the planet, Lance grabbed the controls as he tried to pull up but they were falling too fast. Lance looked at Keith.

“Hold on to something, it’s about to be really fucking bumping.” He said, holding the seat tightly. Keith held onto the back of his seat as the Red Lion crashed along the ravine’s walls.

The roughness and the lack of seat belts caused them to hit their heads on either the dashboard or another hard surface in the cockpit, causing them both to pass out from the force of the hits to their heads.

* * *

_Lance smiled gleefully as he watched the jets from his window. A few months prior, Lance had gotten a letter from the Galaxy Garrison. An acceptance letter. Lance had gotten into his dream school, which was exciting for little 13 year old Lance._

_Lance was practically bouncing with joy as the car rolled to a stop, looking at his big sister, Veronica. Veronica is four years older than Lance, and she is also a student at the Galaxy Garrison._

_Lance got out of the car after Veronica parked the car, heading to the trunk to grab his bags. He grinned as Veronica chuckled and ruffled his hair._

_“Settle down, hermano más joven.” Veronica said, helping him with his bags. Lance chuckled, smiling._

_“Sorry, hermana mayor! I’m just really excited.” He said, smiling brightly. Veronica playfully rolled her eyes, smiling back at him._

_“Let’s go see who your roommate is, hermano.” The 17 year old said, leading the younger to where the dorm listings were._

_Lance skipped over, humming as he looked for his name. “Who’s Keith Kogane?” Lance said, squinting, his eyes a bit before he heard some arguing._

_“But Shiro! Why can’t I live with you and Adam?” Lance turned to look, his eyes widening as he watched a little kid, around his age, his black bangs falling into his eyes. He was a little pale, and looks a bit taller than Lance._

_But the kid wasn’t the reason Lance’s eyes had widened, it’s because he was arguing with Takashi Shirogane, his all-time hero. Lance heard Veronica sighed, looking up at her as she rubbed the bridge of his nose._

_“Because all new recruits have to sleep in the dorm rooms, Keith. Come on, let’s find your roommate and head to your room.” He said, ruffling the kid, Keith apparently, hair. He smacked his hand away, huffing. Veronica sighed, pushing Lance over to them._

_“Hey, Shiro.” Veronica said, sighing. “How are you and Adam?” Veronica said. Shiro waved at her, smiling a bit tiredly._

_“We’re good. I’m assuming your little brother is Keith’s roommate?” He said, gesturing to Lance. Lance nodded, but kept his mouth shut out of fear he’d say something embarrassing._

_Lance noticed that Keith was staring at him, looking over at him. Keith continued to stare at him, tilting his head. “You’re really quiet.” The paler of the two said, frowning._

_Lance nodded, biting his lip as he blushed a bit. “New school, y-ya know?” Lance smiled sheepishly, scratching at the back of his neck._

_“New schools don’t bother me.” Keith muttered, frowning. Lance tilted his head in confusion._

_“What do you mean?” Lance asked innocently, his eyebrows furrowed._

_“That’s none of your business.” Keith snapped out, causing Lance to wince._

_“Sorry…” Lance mumbled out, looking down as he rubbed his arm. Keith huffed, looking away when Shiro smacked the back of his head lightly._

_“Keith, apologize to Lance. You could have told him nicely why you’d rather not talk about it.” Shiro scolded, crossing his arms. Keith let out a huff, looking away._

_“I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have let my anger get the best of me.” Keith muttered, frowning._

_“It’s fine….I shouldn’t be so nosy.” Lance said, smiling nervously as Keith nodded. “How about we head to our dorm room so we can put our stuff away?” Lance suggest, holding his bag. Keith nodded in agreement before Shiro and Veronica led them to their dorm room._

_Lance opened the door, smiling as he pushed his bag onto the top bunk. Keith rolled his eyes with a grumble, putting his bag, which was way smaller than Lance’s, on the bottom bunk._

_“I think we got on the wrong foot.” Lance said, holding his hand out. “Hi, I’m Leandro Charles Herrio McClain. But most people call me Lance.” Lance said, smiling at Keith_

_Keith shook his hand, grumbling. “Keith Akira Kogane.” Keith said, pulling his hand away and sitting on his head. Lance smiled at him, sitting on the desk._

_“Well, Keith. I think this might be the beginnings of a good friendship.” Lance said, oblivious to Keith’s blush when he smiled brightly at him….._

* * *

Lance's groaned as he opened his eyes slightly, rubbing his head where he felt a nasty bump. Lance looked around, noticing that he wasn't in Red and was on a pile of blankets on the ground near a fire.

“Oh good. You're awake now.” Lance looked over at Keith, who was walking out of a damaged Red Lion. Lance grumbled, huffing.

“How bad is Red damaged, team leader.” Lance asked, sitting up slowly as to not hurt his head.

“None of the communications are operational. She's on low energy as well so she's resting now.” Keith explained, putting some paper in the fire.

“Are you using my face masks as kindling?!” Lance shouted as soon as he noticed what the papers were. Keith looked at him with a deadpan expression.

“Would you rather freeze to death?” Keith said in a monotone voice, using the face masks to keep the fire going.

“How are you even using them? They're covered in serums.” Lance said, frowning.

“Whatever alien face masks you bought are apparently flammable.” Keith muttered, sitting down on the opposite side of the fire.

Lance stared at the fire, wrapping his arms around his legs and rested his head on his knees. Lance looked up at Keith when he cleared his throat.

“We have some rations, maybe enough for a few days if we eat once a day, without sharing. Or twice a day, but we share.” Keith explained, playing with his knife. Lance nodded.

“Sharing is easier to do. Especially if we get low.” Lance said, drawing in the dirt with his finger. Keith nodded, staring at the fire. Lance looked at him in worry, remembering his phobia of fire…

* * *

_Lance was woken up by whimpers, his eyebrows furrowing. He stuck his head down to look at Keith, who was curled up and shaking. They had been at the Garrison for 3 months now, and Lance hasn’t seen Keith even get scared._

_“Keith?” Lance asked quietly, getting down from his bunk down slowly. He gently shook his shoulder softly, squeaking when Keith shot up in a gasp. Lance looked at him in worry as he started crying, hugging him as Keith shook._

_“What’s wrong Keith?” Lance asked, his eyebrows furrowing in worry as Keith sniffled._

_“Fire….” Keith muttered, sniffling._

_"What do you mean fire?" Lance asked softly, frowning a bit. Keith sniffled, wiping his eyes._

_"My dad was a firefighter...he died in a fire....I hate fire." Keith muttered, looking away. "Afraid of fire...." He muttered._

_Lance nodded, rubbing his back. "It's okay, Keith....you can have fears..." He said softly. Keith sniffled, looking away from him._

_“Whatever.” Keith muttered, laying down and facing away from him. Lance sighed, climbing back up to his bunk before he tried to fall back to sleep…._

* * *

  
Lance looked at Keith, sighing softly. “Pyrophobia.” Lance said softly, Keith looking up at him from his staring at the fire.

“What?” Keith asked, his eyebrows furrowing. Lance sighed softly, looking at the fire. He watched the orange flames crackle and snap.

“Pyrophobia. The phobia of fire.” Lance muttered, sighing. “You used to have nightmares about the house fire your dad died in….so I did some research on it….” Lance muttered, looking back up at Keith. Keith, who was now looking at his feet.

“I remembered when Allura told me that I was the Guardian of Fire.” Keith muttered. “Remembering the panic I felt, how ironic it was. How the son of a firefighter who died in duty is the Guardian of Fire.” Keith said softly.

Lance nodded, wrapping his arms around himself more. “Yeah, I figured you had panicked….” Lance muttered, watching the fire again. Keith sighed softly, closing his eyes a bit as he nodded.

“We should get some sleep.” Keith suggested, laying down on the ground. Lance nodded, laying down as well. Lance just now noticed that his sleeping stuff was under him, looking at Keith in guilt. Keith was facing away from him, shifting a bit like he was uncomfortable.

Lance sighed, getting up and laying his blanket on Keith before going back to his spot and laying down with his other blanket. Lance closed his eyes, slowly falling asleep.

* * *

_Lance stared as Keith and James was dragged out of the room. Lance had turned a bright pink when he saw Keith punch James, staring in awe as it took a few teachers to pull him off._

_Lance jumped when Hunk, a kid he met in one of his other classes, elbowed him. “Keith just got ten times scarier.” Hunk said, watching Keith struggle as he was dragged to the office._

_Lance looked at the back of Keith head in worry, biting his lip. “I have to go.” Lance said, running out of the training simulator so he could find Adam. He caught Adam leaving the Teacher’s Lounge._

_“Mr. Wright! Can I talk to you?” Lance asked, looking up at him. Adam nodded, frowning._

_“What’s wrong?” Adam asked, tilting his head. Lance looked down are the ground._

_“Keith is in trouble for punching a kid, but the kid should get into more trouble than him or something because he brought up Keith’s parents even though that kid is an orphan too.” Lance said quickly, biting his bottom lip._

_Adam nodded, ruffling his hair. “I’ll see what I can do, head to your next class, Lance.” Adam said, smiling as he started heading to the office Keith and James were at._

_Lance sighed, heading to his next class in a daze, he actually spent the rest of the day in a daze, sitting on his bed after classes before he heard the door open._

_“Keith?” Lance asked, getting down and looking at him. Keith hugged Lance, smiling._

_“Thank you.” Lance turned red, hugging him back._

_“For what?” Lance asked, still red. Keith let go of him, smiling more._

_“James got into trouble for egging me on, getting more in school detentions than me.” Keith said, smiling._

_“Adam told me how you came to him and told him what James had said to me. After some kids heard what you did, they came up to other teachers about what they heard. So thank you.” Keith said, smiling._

_Lance smiled back, blushing lightly. “You’re welcome, Keith…” He said, smiling as he climbed into his bed. He heard Keith get ready for bed and lay down in his bunk, smiling as he closed his eyes gently…._

* * *

Lance sat up as he woke up unexpectedly, looking around as he looked around for the source of the sound that woke him up. He looked over at Keith, who was moving around and whimpering.

Lance got reminded by when they used to be roommates back at the Garrison, when Keith got nightmares regularly about his father’s death. Lance crawled over to where Keith was sleeping, hearing him muttering in his sleep.

“Please…..don’t go….please….don’t leave me alone….not again….” Keith said in his sleep, his eyebrows furrowing as he clutched the blanket tightly in his hands.

Lance sighed softly, rubbing his arm and back gently. He softly ran his hand through Keith’s raven black hair, humming at how soft the dark locks of hair were. Lance looked back at Keith’s face after stroking his hair a bit, sighing in relief when he noticed that Keith had relaxed.

Keith’s eyebrows were no longer furrowed and he had let go of his deadly grip on the blanket. Lance smiled, removing his hand from Keith’s soft hair. Lance blushed lightly as he dragged his finger over his cheekbones.

The features on Keith’s face had sharpened by spending two years on the space whale, along with his hair growing longer. He still had a mullet, but his bangs were longer now.

 _‘I need to convince him to let me cut his bangs…’_ Lance thought as he dragged his hand along Keith’s sharp jaw. Lance pulled his hands away when Keith’s eyes fluttered slightly until they opened a few seconds later.

“Lance?” Keith asked drowsily as he sat up slowly, rubbing his eye as he yawned. Lance blushed a bit, smiling softly.

“You were talking in your sleep, having a nightmare. Was it about your dad?” Lance asked, looking at him in worry. Keith blinked a bit before shaking his head.

“It was about something I saw during one of those flashes during my time on the space whale…” Keith muttered, looking down at his hands. Lance frowned, resting his hand on his arm.

“You know you can talk to me about it….I’m sorry about earlier….I know you were just trying to help the team by trusting your guts….so I’m sorry.” Lance said, sighing softly.

“No! No, I’m sorry! I should have told you guys about what I tried to do but I was scared. I was scared you all would leave me behind…..that you all would tell me to never come back…” Keith said softly, looking up at him.

Lance pulled him into a hug. “We would never do that, Keith. We’re your friends, your family. No one would leave you.” Lance said, hugging him tighter, rubbing his back when Keith hugged him back.

Keith tried not the cry, but he could already feel a few traitorous tears slip from his eyes and down his cheeks. He pulled away from the hug to wipe his tears away, smiling softly.

“Thank you, Lance…..thank you so much.” Keith said softly, looking at him with a soft smile. Lance smiled back, blushing a soft pink. He opened his mouth to say something in return when their comms turned on.

 _“Lance, Keith? You two okay?”_ Shiro asked over the comms, worry dripping in his tone of voice.

“Yep! Did you locate the signal Red was giving off?” Keith asked, smiling more as he gave Lance a thumbs up. Lance smiled sadly as he returned the thumbs up, getting up to pick up their supplies when Shiro said they’d be there soon.

Lance and Keith packed up their makeshift camp, putting all of the supplies back inside. Keith walked back out to put the fire out, heading back into the cockpit when the other lions showed up and helped Red out of the ravine.

Lance looked sadly at the expanse of space as Keith used Kosmo to teleport back to Black, gripping his controls as he turned the comms off. He took a shaky deep breath before letting out a deep sob.

Lance covered his mouth, sobbing slightly as he remembered Keith barely acknowledging him mentioning their past. He curled up as he brain brought up all their memories together from their time as roommates, sobbing as he remembered Keith not remembering him, never bringing up the times they were good, even best friends.

_‘I can’t be the only one that remembers all the good times we had….i miss you….i miss my best friend.’_

Lance sobbed harder as he closed his eyes, feeling Red trying to comfort him as he kept sobbing. He knew Red was on autopilot as he followed the others away from the planet and back on the track to Earth.

 _‘I miss you, Keith…..Why can’t you remember all the times we shared?’_ Lance thought as he slowly fell asleep from being emotionally drained and from crying so hard.

Last thing Lance sees before falling deep into a dream was Keith’s soft smile when they danced at a Galaxy Garrison Homecoming.


End file.
